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Dig
Definitions
- 1 An archeological or paleontological investigation, or the site where such an investigation is taking place.
- 2 Digoxin. colloquial, uncountable
"dig toxicity"
- 3 A duck. obsolete
"Powltrey, &c, &c. Item ten turkeys … Item three Digs [an old Cheshire word for duck] and a Drake … Item ffower Capons … [The word's gloss has been inserted by Earwaker]"
- 4 Initialism of dwarf irregular galaxy. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 5 dwarf irregular galaxy
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- 6 the act of touching someone suddenly with your finger or elbow wordnet
- 7 A thrust; a poke.
"He guffawed and gave me a dig in the ribs after telling his latest joke."
- 8 the act of digging wordnet
- 9 A hard blow, especially (boxing) a straight left-hander delivered under the opponent's guard. archaic, slang
"[…] 'let him go, I tell you, or I'll be after breaking your ugly mug,' and with that I gave him a dig that knocked him into smithereens."
- 10 a small gouge (as in the cover of a book) wordnet
- 11 A defensive pass of the ball that has been attacked by the opposing team.
- 12 an aggressive remark directed at a person like a missile and intended to have a telling effect wordnet
- 13 An innings.
- 14 the site of an archeological exploration wordnet
- 15 A cutting, sarcastic remark.
"Buckram ! that's a dig at my trade."
- 16 The occupation of digging for gold.
"Don Quixote told us that Western Australia was the same to him as any other country, except that it possessed the charm of novelty, and he assured us that as soon as he was well enough he would be off on the "dig" once more."
- 17 A plodding and laborious student. US, colloquial, dated
"Between the two extremes of college men the unsocial dig and the flunking swell, lies the majority, who, acknowledging the duty and merit of hard work, see the value in social and recreative line, but are at somewhat of a loss, seemingly, how to proportionize the time given to the different sides of college life, or how far to allow themselves to go on the more attractive side."
- 18 A tool for digging. UK, dated, dialectal
- 19 A rare or interesting vinyl record bought second-hand. slang
"a £1 charity shop dig"
- 1 To move hard-packed earth out of the way, especially downward to make a hole with a shovel. Or to drill, or the like, through rocks, roads, or the like. More generally, to make any similar hole by moving material out of the way. intransitive, transitive
"They dug an eight-foot ditch along the side of the road."
- 2 To understand. dated, slang
"You dig?"
- 3 get the meaning of something wordnet
- 4 To get by digging; to take from the ground; often with up. transitive
"to dig potatoes"
- 5 To appreciate, or like. dated, slang, transitive
"Baby, I dig you."
Show 12 more definitions
- 6 poke or thrust abruptly wordnet
- 7 To take ore from its bed, in distinction from making excavations in search of ore.
- 8 turn up, loosen, or remove earth wordnet
- 9 To work like a digger; to study ploddingly and laboriously. US, dated, slang
"Peter dug at his books all the harder."
- 10 remove the inner part or the core of wordnet
- 11 To investigate, to research, often followed by out or up. figuratively
"to dig up evidence"
- 12 create by digging wordnet
- 13 To thrust; to poke.
"He dug an elbow into my ribs and guffawed at his own joke."
- 14 thrust down or into wordnet
- 15 To defend against an attack hit by the opposing team by successfully passing the ball
- 16 remove, harvest, or recover by digging wordnet
- 17 work hard wordnet
Etymology
From Middle English diggen (“to dig”, 13th c.), an alteration of dīken, from Old English dīcian (“to dig a ditch, mound up earth”), from Proto-West Germanic *dīkōn, which see for cognates. This verb is denominal from Proto-Germanic *dīkaz (“pool, puddle; dyke, ditch”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“to stab, dig”). The form with g may have been influenced by Old French *diguer, a variant of dikier, itself from the West Germanic verb above. French forms with g are attested only in the 15th c., thus 200 years later than in English. On the other hand, French has according forms also for the underlying noun (cf. digue) and the phonetic development is more plausible in French than in English.
From Middle English diggen (“to dig”, 13th c.), an alteration of dīken, from Old English dīcian (“to dig a ditch, mound up earth”), from Proto-West Germanic *dīkōn, which see for cognates. This verb is denominal from Proto-Germanic *dīkaz (“pool, puddle; dyke, ditch”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“to stab, dig”). The form with g may have been influenced by Old French *diguer, a variant of dikier, itself from the West Germanic verb above. French forms with g are attested only in the 15th c., thus 200 years later than in English. On the other hand, French has according forms also for the underlying noun (cf. digue) and the phonetic development is more plausible in French than in English.
From African American Vernacular English; due to lack of writing of slave speech, etymology is difficult to trace, but it has been suggested that it is from Wolof dëgg, dëgga (“to understand, to appreciate”). It has also been suggested that it is from Irish dtuig, thus being a doublet of twig. Others do not propose a distinct etymology, instead considering this a semantic shift of the existing English term (compare dig in/dig into).
Shortening.
Unknown. Compare Middle English digge.
See also for "dig"
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